The Sunday Mirror links us with a £2m move for Matthew Etherington in the summer.
This story seems a little far-fetched for me. Etherington only joined Stoke from West Ham in January and, from what I’ve seen, has done pretty well at the Britannia Stadium. The paper says he’s unhappy in Potteries and would jump at the chance of returning to London and playing alongside his mate Simon Davies.
But there’s very little fact in the story. We obviously are keen to bring in a left-sided player in the summer as it’s been a bit of a problem position ever since Boa left. Could we not be setting our sights a little higher than Etherington? And would Roy really want to take a chance on a player who’s got a very public gambling problem? We should get a chance to see just how good Etherington is at the Cottage next Saturday.
I must admit I wasn’t all that excited when we linked again with Harry Kewell earlier this month but I’d take the Australian over the overrated Etherington.
Ideally, I’d like us to sign a winger who will take people on and whip in a decent cross in. It would give us another dimension as we are currently pretty narrow in midfield and try to pass our way through teams. The only down side to signing a new left-sided player would be that it would probably put Clint’s place in jeopardy for next season and that would be harsh because I think he’s been magnificent this year.